In Michel de Montaigne’s collection of essays, perception, or our point of view of things, rule our existence. In the first piece “Of the Power of the Imagination”, Montaigne’s main point is that “strong imagination creates the event”(345). In his experience, if people’s belief or imagination in an action or event was strong enough, said thought coursing through one’s imagination would become true. Basically, a placebo would take effect. The placebo effect is something that i learned about very young and always interested me. The way Montaigne beautifully describes the power of imagination or a placebo, in a less scientific and medicinal way, really engaged me.

In another essay, “Of Cannibals”, perception takes place through cultural relativism. He argues that the Europeans incorrectly refer to the newly discovered Brazilian people as barbaric in nature. From the standpoint of the Europeans, he understands why they would say that, as anything different from their norm can be considered barbaric and prehistoric. However, he argues against this when he recalls a visit from 3 Brazilians and how they considered certain European traditions odd. He also argues that European are actually more barbaric because they are farther away from humankind’s “natural” state. If anything is wild it is that that is furthest away from nature and that would be the Europeans. He understands that it all depends on who’s viewpoint you are looking from, in    another word, perception.

The anthology The Kokinshu is a Japanese classic consisting of hundreds of poems. According to the intro and preface, it is a collection of poems describing the seasons and love. One can’t help to notice that even when the poets are talking about nature and their surroundings, the double meaning is ultimately about love. The endearing part of the poetry is the concise syllabic rhythm they are comprised of, however, no matter what type of poetry I try to read, poems just doesn’t resonate with me.

In Poem 553, the author talks about a moment in time in where she dozes off and dreams about someone she loves. At the end however, she says “Since when I have begun to place/My trust in the things called dreams”. I find myself thinking the same thing many times. I learned about psych analysis and the difference between the conscious and subconscious. There are certain dreams that I don’t pay any mind to but when there is a possibility a dream can mean something I want it to mean, I delve deeper into it.

Most poems in this work remind me so much of my grandma’s farm. The farms in Ecuador aren’t like the farms here. The farms over there are filled with tall trees and luscious fruits and flowers. In Poems 23, 24, and 27  I can’t help but recall her farm. Even though the natural surroundings described differ from the South American vegetation, the combination of the poems bring back memories of my time spent there.

In Symposium, Plato shows off the different facets of love. Each speaker doesn’t merely repeat what the previous speaker says but rather takes a completely different view on love.   Love has always been around and the first speaker Phaedrus gives a good introduction by establishing loves eternal complexity. However, no description grabs my attention like Socrate’s definition of love of it being a quest for immortality. He says “I believe that anyone will do anything for the sake of immortal virtue… for they are all in love with immortality” . He further claims that people who aren’t intelligent enough to seek immortality through true virtue just have babies and seek immortality through their offspring. Although I do understand that love is beautiful, I agree with the latter part because at the end of the day, love is just an evolutionary trait that helps humans produce offspring. Even though the speakers’ lexicon is confusing in some parts, I do agree with some speakers on beauty of love, however, my thoughts on the abstractness of love are sort of bias due to the recent scientific discoveries on love.